Hearing delayed for murder defendant in Asher case

There’s been a delay in scheduling a preliminary hearing date for the 18-year-old suspect charged in the shooting death of his college classmate near Asher.

Comment

By Kim Morava

The Shawnee News-Star

By Kim Morava

Posted Jan. 10, 2013 at 8:26 PM
Updated Jan 10, 2013 at 8:28 PM

By Kim Morava

Posted Jan. 10, 2013 at 8:26 PM
Updated Jan 10, 2013 at 8:28 PM

There’s been a delay in scheduling a preliminary hearing date for the 18-year-old suspect charged in the shooting death of his college classmate near Asher.

Jerrod Murray, Asher, faces a charge of felony first-degree murder, deliberate intent. He didn’t have a lawyer when he appeared in court for the pre-preliminary hearing docket in Pottawatomie County District Court this week, so the matter was postponed.

Court documents filed Thursday show Murray is now being represented through the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, so his case is now set for a scheduling hearing on Jan. 29.

Murray was charged Dec. 6, one day after the homicide occurred in Pottawatomie County. District Attorney Richard Smothermon said the case involved a random, senseless murder.

Murray is accused in the shooting death of Generro Sanchez, 18, a fellow classmate at East Central University in Ada. Both the suspect and victim were freshmen and reportedly lived in the dorms on campus.

Murray is accused of offering Sanchez $20 to take him on a trip to Walmart, but instead forced him at gunpoint to drive to an area about five miles north of Asher, where arrest affidavit alleges Murray shot and killed his classmate and left is body in the ditch.

Murray allegedly admitted to investigators that he’d been planning to kill someone for about three weeks, according to the arrest affidavit, and targeted Sanchez, who he only knew by his first name.

The victim’s body was found in a ditch along Substation Road, which is located south of U.S. 177 and SH 59.

Asher police reported some type of suspicious activity in that area and it was about 2:34 a.m. when Deputy Justin Abbott called Undersheriff Travis Palmer about the discovery of the body, later identified as Sanchez.

As Palmer was responding, he heard radio traffic about a possible suspect seen walking north on U.S. 177.

Palmer located Murray near Sing Road and asked him if he had a gun.

Murray said, “No sir, it’s in the truck and I am the guy you’re after,” the arrest affidavit reads.

Palmer asked Murray why deputies would be looking for him.

Murray responded with, “Cause of the guy I shot and put in the ditch on Substation Road,” according to the affidavit.

According to the interview, Murray allegedly used a .40-caliber firearm that was stolen from a house in Asher.